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The weather is warming up – you should be too. Whether you’re chasing muscle recovery, a place to meditate or just an hour off your phone, the Gold Coast’s sauna scene is the place to do it. Sweat it out in these Gold Coast saunas.

First, the science.

Sauna, steam room – same thing, right? Not exactly. A sauna offers dry heat, generated by hot rocks or a wood-fired stove, and it runs properly hot, often between 70 and 90-plus degrees. A steam room works the opposite way: cooler, but soaked through, with humidity sitting at 100 per cent.

That distinction is important. Saunas tend to be better for muscle recovery, circulation and building heat tolerance, while steam rooms come into their own for skin hydration and respiratory relief (if you’re congested or chesty, that’s the room for you).

Both work on the same basic principle, though: hormesis, or a small, controlled dose of stress that prompts your body to adapt and repair itself. It’s the same idea behind a hard training session or an ice bath, just applied in the opposite direction.

Regular heat exposure has been linked to better cardiovascular health, reduced inflammation and proper relaxation – not the ‘rest’ you say you’re getting when you’re scrolling on your phone. You don’t even need to follow it with a plunge into cold water either, though plenty of the spots below will happily offer you one. Heat does plenty of work on its own.

With that cleared up, strip down and get sweaty in one of these Gold Coast saunas.

Sol Elements, Tamborine Mountain

Sol Elements holds the title of Australia’s first “floating” elemental bathhouse, built atop a lake at Tamborine Mountain Glades and ringed by subtropical rainforest on all sides. You’ll find three outdoor communal magnesium thermal pools heated to 38 degrees, two cold plunges at 12 degrees, a cedar stone sauna looking straight out over the lake, a steam room and a Himalayan salt cave. It’s a device-free space, and while it’s less than an hour from the coast, it’s a “worth the drive” destination.

www.solelements.com.au

Native State, Coolangatta

Perched right on Kirra Beach, Native State is home to a heated vitality pool, an icy plunge, infrared and traditional cedar saunas, and a large stone steam room. For a full-body experience, book a class in their workout studio. The real standout, though, is the meditation lounge – its curved recliners are built for powering down, not just perching between sessions.

www.nativestate.com.au

Vikasati, Southport

Vikasati leans into an open-air, social atmosphere, with a contrast therapy focus geared towards recovery for Gold Coast athletes. Their Finnish rock sauna runs between 70 and 90 degrees, and the space is generous enough that you’re never fighting for room to stretch out (a proper plus for seasoned sauna-goers). It’s dry heat that properly penetrates, rather than just sitting on the skin.

www.vikasati.com.au

Greenhouse The Bathhouse, Tallebudgera

In Greenhouse’s 90-minute rotating Soak Sessions, you’ll move between their steam room and traditional sauna, a mineral pool, warm magnesium pools and cold plunge, with a plant-based restaurant waiting for you on site for when you’re done. Book yourself a massage, stay on for lunch, and let the Tally Valley surrounds do the rest.

www.greenhousethebathhouse.com

The Bathhouse at Ground, Currumbin

Even just visiting Ground Currumbin – home to the eco village, farm-fresh café and a series of family-friendly community events – is a relaxing experience, so an hour in their bathhouse takes you to the next level. Set in a Queenslander under a majestic fig tree, the wood-fired and infrared saunas and a cedar hot tub just feel like an added bonus.

www.groundcurrumbin.com.au/bathhouse

LAN Bathhouse, Surfers Paradise

LAN Bathhouse is a proper sanctuary amongst the busyness of the Glitter Strip, tucked away atop the Paradise Centre (home to Timezone, the Surfers Paradise Beer Garden and TGI Fridays). In the cavernous bathhouse, you’ll find hot pools, a cold plunge and private group spas, plus a hot sauna and steam room for when you’re ready to properly slow down.

www.lanbathhouse.com.au

Soak Bathhouse, Mermaid Beach

One of the OG names in the Gold Coast’s bathhouse scene, Soak has been a favourite amongst Mermaid locals for years, and for good reason. Try their infrared sauna, or take your time cycling between the dry cedar sauna, steam room, outdoor mineral pools, cold plunge and hot spas.

www.soakbathhouse.com.au

Ready to chill out? Hit one of these ice baths next.

Merse Wellness Spa is Fitness Cartel’s most ambitious project yet, and their first standalone bathhouse destination. We caught up with the team ahead of its October opening in Coomera.

With an estimated cost of up to $3 million, the purpose-built 600-square-metre centre will have up to 700 members, create 10 new jobs and bring a new standard for wellness to the northern Gold Coast.

“For us, this isn’t just another location – it’s our first standalone Merse Wellness destination in Queensland,” says CEO Nathan James. “We can’t wait to open the doors.”

Read our chat with Nathan below…

The Gold Coast is wellness obsessed. Why do you think locals will be excited about Merse specifically?

The Gold Coast already does wellness brilliantly, but the conversation here has mostly been about fitness, gyms and group training – the daily training side of things. Recovery and relaxation, at a serious level, has been the missing piece, and so has the integration between movement and recovery.

Merse Coomera is built to bring those worlds together. We’ve put a dedicated Pilates studio under the same roof as the bathhouse, recovery and magnesium wellness experiences, so members can move and recover in the one space, on the one membership.

The other piece I think locals will love is what we’ve built underneath the experience. The water in our pools is constantly refreshed, every six to fifteen minutes, and we use 500 kilograms of magnesium to support recovery and relaxation. To our knowledge, there’s nothing else quite like it operating in Australia. Most other bathhouses run on essentially stagnant, heavily chlorinated water that doesn’t change over.

And the price point matters too. We’re building a genuinely premium experience but pricing memberships from only $39 a week for unlimited access during the pre-sale period. So, it’s something people can build into their week rather than save up for as an occasional treat.

There are a few bathhouses and other wellness destinations on the Gold Coast, but most are further south. Why was Coomera the perfect choice for your next location?

Coomera is one of the fastest-growing communities in Southeast Queensland, and when you look at the precinct around Westfield, it’s already a strong fitness and lifestyle pocket. What it didn’t have was a dedicated wellness, recovery and movement destination at a premium level – that gap is exactly what Merse Coomera is built to fill.

Location-wise, it’s about as accessible as it gets. We’re directly opposite Westfield Coomera, with a new road going straight from our site to the centre, so for locals it’s a few minutes from where they already shop, train and live. We didn’t want this to be somewhere people drove half an hour to visit once a month. We wanted it to be part of everyday life.

And the broader north-Gold-Coast catchment of Coomera, Upper Coomera and Pimpama has the demographic profile of people who are already investing in their health and looking for the next step beyond a standard gym or a one-off treatment. That’s our audience.

Other than the obvious wellness benefits, how will Merse support the northern Gold Coast community?

The most immediate is jobs: Merse Coomera will create around 10 new local roles when we’re fully operational, across hospitality, member experience, Pilates instruction and wellness expertise.

Beyond that, we see Merse as part of the local wellness ecosystem rather than competing with it. Our Pilates studio gives us a natural connection point with the broader movement community on the Gold Coast, and we want to work alongside local physios, allied health practitioners and trainers who have clients who would benefit hugely from recovery, and we have a space designed exactly for that.

What are the differences between Merse and a traditional day spa?

The big difference is the breadth of what’s on offer. A day spa is built around a single treatment experience. Merse Coomera puts a dedicated Pilates studio, the bathhouse, recovery zones, compression, red light therapy as well as relaxation spaces under one roof. You can come in and do a Pilates class, move into the hot and cold experience, and finish in the recovery lounge all on the same membership. That integration of movement and recovery is something day spas simply aren’t set up to deliver.

How did Merse Wellness come about? What inspired you to enter the world of wellness spas?

Several years ago, I went through one of the most challenging periods of my life and experienced severe anxiety. As someone who had spent decades in the fitness industry, it was something I had never truly understood until I experienced it myself.

During that time, I discovered hot and cold therapy. What started as an experiment quickly became part of my weekly routine. The combination of heat, cold and recovery gave me a genuine reset. It improved my mental clarity, reduced stress and helped me feel like myself again.

I still use hot and cold therapy two or three times a week today. It’s helped me improve my recovery, maintain lean muscle and perform at a higher level, both physically and mentally.

I have four kids, and my goal isn’t just to keep up with them, it’s to be the healthiest, strongest and most energetic dad I can be for decades to come.

That experience made me realise these powerful wellness tools shouldn’t be reserved for people who can afford expensive home setups or luxury retreats. That’s really where the idea for Merse came from: creating a world-class wellness experience that everyday people can access as part of their weekly routine.

Do you have any tips for readers who have never dipped their toe (pun intended) into a wellness spa, and want to get the most out of their experience?

My biggest tip is to not be intimidated by the cold plunge. That’s the part most first-timers worry about, but it’s also the part most people come back for. There’s a real sense of accomplishment in sitting in the cold water and then there’s the physical reaction, your body flushing itself with adrenaline and the feel-good chemicals that help improve circulation, muscle recovery, stress reduction and overall mental resilience.

For a first visit, I’d allow yourself somewhere between sixty and ninety minutes, enough time to move through the experience without rushing. Hydrate well before you arrive. A good rhythm is to start in the hot rock sauna or a hot magnesium bath for around ten to fifteen minutes, shower in the monsoon shower then move into the cold plunge for one to three minutes, and repeat that cycle two or three times. Finish with quiet time in a relaxation space, give your body a few minutes to settle.

If you can, pair the bathhouse with one of our Pilates sessions in the studio. A gentle Pilates class beforehand warms the body up and means you arrive at the hot and cold experience feeling open and mobile rather than tight. The recovery effect is noticeably better, and it gives you a complete movement-and-recovery loop in one visit.

The other thing I’d say is come back. The benefits compound. One visit will feel great. A few visits a month, paired with sleep and good nutrition, will change how you feel in your body. That’s why we built this as a membership rather than a one-off booking. The people who get the most out of it are the people who treat it as part of their week.